We've spoken about Sir Kenneth Robinson before; his amazing TED talk has been viewed, praised and passed along the Interweb many, many times. This week he was in Toronto and spoke at The Glenn Gould Studio at the CBC. "Nuturing passion and talent" was sponsored in part by The Globe and Mail and you can see it here on the Globe Campus web site. Part 1. Part 2.
One of the things we're noticing about work today is that the expectations of when projects need to be completed (NOW!!) and how long work is expected to take to get from brief to completion (NOW!). It's no longer enough to say, we'll need a week or we'll need some time. Economic pressures, business realities and the need to drive sales NOW!! have forced companies like ours (and anyone in a service business for that matter) to adapt. It's not warp speed. It's hyper-warp speed.
And one of the biggest mistake companies in the service business can make is to compare themselves to others in their business as a point of
reference.
"If every other company like ours takes a week, then we have a week." Wrong.
We can argue for days about the role the media is playing in accelerating the fears people have about the current economy. Negative headlines & stories abound but journalists remain devout in fanning the flames
("The news isn't good." one scribe was quoted as saying, "What do you want us to do, write about stuff that isn't true?" - no, but there are two ways to look at a glass of water; half full or half empty.). All the good news seems to be buried or glossed over ("AT&T to add 3,000 jobs" "RIM bringing on new workers") but the net take away is that people are scared, uncertain and fearful.
The folks from GM (and Chrysler) have been in Washington DC talking to Congress about hand outs to help them survive. We can forever debate the pros and cons as to whether the government should be in come to town and tell them why you need the money, what you'll do with it,
how you won't blow it God help you - this time you mean it -you'll never do this again and on and on and on, couldn't they have done better than this????
All the money they spend non innovating the car business you'd think someone in head office could've hired a presentation coach or someone with an eye for communication.Charts, graphs, bullet points,lots and lots and lots of copy and only one that had a photo of a car in it. Can't imagine being on the receiving
end of this presentation, and we can't confirm it but apparently this guy was in the front row.
We're getting lots of feedback from a campaign we developed for The Globe and Mail and their Mediterranean cruise. We wrote about the value and highlights of the cruise here, but we've been asked to show all of the ads together, which were happy to do. Our goal with this campaign is to focus on various events from the trip to ensure the reader understands that this is not only a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity but also that this cruise has been customized for Globe readers and will not and cannot be replicated elsewhere. In terms of value, there is no comparison to any other cruise you might be considering. When you take into account the exclusivity afforded the Globe as well as the 'all inclusive' nature of the voyage, there is no comparison. As the ads say This is only one day of fourteen on this journey of a lifetime.
The folks from GM (and Chrysler) have been in Washington DC talking to Congress about hand outs to help them survive. We can forever debate the pros and cons as to whether the government should be in come to town and tell them why you need the money, what you'll do with it,
how you won't blow it God help you - this time you mean it -you'll never do this again and on and on and on, couldn't they have done better than this????
As we've said before, we're huge fans of Seth Godin. Here he gives his perspective on a few things: Possibilities. Scale. Tribes. The power of 1000 people (1:35). And why he doesn't use Twitter (he's late to it and it's distracting - 9:20) His best quote about reasons for not using twitter is that he "....doesn't want to become a wandering generality rather than a meaningful specific...." Couldn't agree more about that or the whole twitter thing.
For the second consecutive year, The Globe and Mail is offering it's readers (or those just interested) a chance to travel in luxury on a customized, 14 day cruise. Last year, The Globe's Caribbean Odyssey cruise was an unqualified success (98% approval rating from guests); this year it's the Mediterranean.
One of our recent new business wins was for an accounting firm based in Calgary who has just expanded into Toronto. Myers, Norris, Penny is Canada's 7th largest accounting and business consultancy.
We've been retained to help them begin their march onto the hallowed halls of Bay Street to take on heavy weights like Ernst & Young, KPMG, PWC and others.
Who knew that before the Wright Brothers there was Abbas bin Firnas ? And the guy who invented the pinhole camera was not Edward Land or some guy named Nikon, but a Muslim named Ibn al-Haytham ?
Hi. Remember us? Naked? We're still here, just a little out of breath.
We've gone missing for the past, oh, 6 or 8 months or so. Shame on us. We've had lot's to say, plenty to show but we've been so busy getting it out the door.....you know, the shoemakers children yada, yada, yada. But thanks for your cards & letters of encouragement; they kept us going. Really.
This is the business philosophy driving a number of companies these days. I filled up my car with gas yesterday and beside the pump, was a sign like the one over there on the right.
Huh? We're consumers. When did we become the V.P. of YOUR business operations? When did your job duty become our responsibility?
In another case, my friend just got upgraded to a new 'black' Visa card
(is Black the new Gold?) and was then informed that it was HIS responsibility to contact & inform all of those companies with whom he has a direct payment arrangement, and tell them that he has a new card number.
One would think, with all that technology can do and has the promise to do, that this could, would and should be an automated process with NO inconvenience to the consumer in any way.
In fact, in a world where competitive advantages are harder and harder to come by, why don't they market it as an benefit: Most card companies require you to do this yourself; we've done it for you. You're welcome.
